Dopamine builds and reveals reward-associated latent behavioral attractors

Jérémie Naudé (), Matthieu X. B. Sarazin, Sarah Mondoloni, Bernadette Hannesse, Eléonore Vicq, Fabrice Amegandjin, Alexandre Mourot, Philippe Faure () and Bruno Delord ()
Additional contact information
Jérémie Naudé: Neuroscience Paris Seine; Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (NPS - IBPS)
Matthieu X. B. Sarazin: CNRS
Sarah Mondoloni: Neuroscience Paris Seine; Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (NPS - IBPS)
Bernadette Hannesse: Neuroscience Paris Seine; Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (NPS - IBPS)
Eléonore Vicq: ESPCI Paris; PSL Research University
Fabrice Amegandjin: Neuroscience Paris Seine; Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (NPS - IBPS)
Alexandre Mourot: Neuroscience Paris Seine; Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (NPS - IBPS)
Philippe Faure: Neuroscience Paris Seine; Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (NPS - IBPS)
Bruno Delord: CNRS

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Phasic variations in dopamine levels are interpreted as a teaching signal reinforcing rewarded behaviors. However, behavior also depends on the motivational, neuromodulatory effect of phasic dopamine. In this study, we reveal a neurodynamical principle that unifies these roles in a recurrent network-based decision architecture embodied through an action-perception loop with the task space, the MAGNet model. Dopamine optogenetic conditioning in mice was accounted for by an embodied network model in which attractors encode internal goals. Dopamine-dependent synaptic plasticity created “latent” attractors, to which dynamics converged, but only locally. Attractor basins were widened by dopamine-modulated synaptic excitability, rendering goals accessible globally, i.e. from distal positions. We validated these predictions optogenetically in mice: dopamine neuromodulation suddenly and specifically attracted animals toward rewarded locations, without off-target motor effects. We thus propose that motivational dopamine reveals dopamine-built attractors representing potential goals in a behavioral landscape.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-53976-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-53976-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53976-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().